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Wot I Think: Deus Ex Human Revolution
God In The Machine?
There are very few games that all of us at RPS find ourselves all anticipating so hotly, and this week Deus Ex: Human Revolution is finally with us. Copies should unlock in the US at midnight tonight, while other parts of the world (needlessly) have to wait another four days. Are our anticipations met? I've finished the game and will do my best to tell you Wot I Think.
It's an extraordinary relief. Like that moment when your shoulders finally slide down into the hot bathwater, you physically and mentally relax in the knowledge that you're back to that place. Remember when first-person games were complex, multifarious, and had a quicksave? Remember Thief, Deus Ex, Bloodlines? It's that place, that brain-massaging, hair-stroking safe place of excellence that it was getting hard to remember ever really happened.
It's worth noting at this point that I have no intentions of going into the intricacies of the game's plot, any of the surprises in place, and I'm even going to avoid getting into too many of the mechanics of how it works. Much is about free exploration of ideas, and making decisions based on the limited information available and your own personal agendas. Saying, "It's so great that feature X eventually lets you…" or "It's crap that X never really gets powerful enough" could define how you'll play, which would be robbing you of what I had when I started. At the same time, it is necessary to critique some aspects of the game that will by necessity count as such mechanical spoilers. I'm aiming to be extremely careful.
A gentle opening sets some agendas. Following your scientist companion through the laboratories of Sarif Industries, you as Adam Jensen (with the face you're given) begin on rails. You meet people, watch conversations, and get a feel for the place you work in. Before everything around you goes to shit. It's going to be a game about people, about places, and about conflict.
The central conflict in the second half of the next decade lies between the growing popularity of artificial augmentations for humans, and those who believe in the purity of the human form. A subject that is increasingly becoming relevant to us now, and I think that's the motivation to have things set so near. Augmentation is already a norm in the game's setting, years before the events of the original, with rival firms around the world competing for dominance in the field, while those left unaugmented fear for their futures. Why would you hire someone who doesn't have a bionic arm over someone who does? What good is a photographer that requires cameras and equipment when another person can take the shots simply by blinking? And that fear, the sense of a divide and global societal pressure to artificially improve yourself to maintain advantage, is what DXHR aims to explore.
In effect, what this means is going to various parts of the world and sneaking past/stunning/killing lots of people in large buildings, between chatting with locals in the streets. The towns are amazing. Huge locations, without feeling like unwieldy "open city" zombie towns, packed with shops, alleys, sewers and clubs, peopled by individuals with unique attitudes and voices. Although it can sometimes feel like there's not much to do, there's always plenty of places to go, and various routes to take. You're generally looking for someone who's mentioned in a current quest, whether the main, or something on the side. However, talk elsewhere and you can hit glass walls. Once off the street, the chances are you're going to be in an elaborate office complex with an atrium centre, huge laboratories, and private offices upstairs. Which is a great place to be the first… three times? It's certainly a fair argument that some locations get repetitive.
Let's stress the 'great places to be' part. They really are. This is a game that gets stealth so very, very right that you start to get angry about games you previously thought were fine. Cover drops you seamlessly into third-person, somehow without this ever feeling weird, and neatly hugs the world's features. Features that don't, by nature of the environments, feel like they were put there purely in case some invading combatants were in need of cover. Office equipment, doorways, street furniture and supply deliveries all feel like they should be there, which in turn means you get to feel like you're manipulating the world to your advantage, rather than the other way around.
And locations genuinely do have multiple routes through them. It's often hard to appreciate quite how much choice you had until you accidentally stumble on something later. For instance, if you find your way into a building by avoiding bribing the person at the entrance, and instead climbing carefully stacked crates and bins to reach an open duct, then crawl your way in through the tunnels to a cleaning supplies closet, you might later on take a wrong turning and find yourself on the roof. A roof you'll realise has a ladder leading to a gap where you could jump to a nearby residential building, which you could have hacked your way into and climbed within.
In the end your style of play is met not by the world changing to suit you, but by your simply never encountering the options others might have gravitated toward. And the same very much counts for how you go about dealing with enemies.
I completed the game without firing a bullet. Let alone killing anyone. (With a massively exceptional caveat we'll be coming to very soon.) Using a combination of tranq guns, the tasering stun gun, and most of all, hands-on non-lethal take-downs, I made sure that the available enemies were out of commission, but without any loss of life.
There was a motivation to play this way, although it came from me, rather than the game – the opportunity to play any game without the thoughtless murder of strangers is enormously appealing. But there was also the option, should I have taken it, of just sneaking my way past most of them without conflict at all. However, that's less fun! (Let alone that if you knock a guard out rather than kill him, and his body is found by another, he can be revived. If they're all sleeping, no one's going to be reviving them.) So my particular tastes were carefully met by the game.
Then again, if they're dead they're equally not getting back up. And so while an encountered body will raise alarms (which is why it's best to hide them well), if you're killing people they're going to be under-staffed when they all come after you.
Those are the choices you make on your own. But of course there are others that involve other people. Let's take the first mission as an example, because it suits and doesn't give away anything once the story has gotten going.
Terrorists have entered a Sarif factory, and workers are being held hostage. However, your main goal is to recover some technology that you don't want to fall into enemy hands. You can deal with this in a great number of ways.
My first time, I knocked out enemies I encountered until I found those hostages, and I saved the life out of them. Then at the end, when encountering the terrorist leader holding a gun to the head of one of the hostages' wives, I used my judgement (genuinely my judgment rather than Jenson's) to talk him into letting her go, but also let him go free. For my own reasons I won't share.
I could have, however (as I did in a second play), kill every terrorist, then find the hostages and brutally murder each of them, one begging for forgiveness for whatever it was he'd done wrong. Reaching the end I shot the terrorist in the head fast enough that he couldn't get a shot off to kill the captured lady, then killed both the police officers who showed up, and stabbed the hostage lady to death.
It's fair to say this rather extreme approach wasn't quite recognised by the game. The reaction of colleagues after was not to my sociopathy, but rather to my having killed the terrorist so he couldn't be asked questions. It's reasonable to expect people not to play this stupidly, but it is a bit of a shame that it's possible to do, if the game isn't going to react to it. But the key point here is: it's possible to do. As would have been never finding the hostages and their getting blown up purely through negligence, getting into a firefight that saw the hostage wife killed, capturing the lead terrorist to be questioned (I'm fascinated to know what is learned by this route), and all sorts of other permutations. And that's the first mission. Which hopefully goes some way to getting across the point that this game is so much more than most.
Which makes stupid mistakes stand out like throbbing pimples on a beautiful pristine face. And the pimpliest of them all are the boss fights.
Yes, indeed. This most inappropriate of places has boss fights. Which would be ignominious enough if they weren't incredibly lousy boss fights. Feeling as though they were programmed by another team, from another planet, they absolutely, unequivocally do not fit in this game. They're the sort of inclusion that you can only think, "I can't wait until enough time has passed that the developers will feel able to tell the miserable story of why this happened."
It sucks that they're there at all, and it sucks more that they're all so boring and tedious, lacking even the grace of a classic Nintendo boss fight that at least contains a logical path. But what goes so far beyond just sucking is the betrayal they represent. Here all illusion of choice is gone. All playing styles are abandoned. Playing as someone killing no one, learning that the first fight at least, early on in the game, forces me to kill a man almost put me off the game entirely. Despite only using stuns, EMPs and tranqs on him, I was still treated to a cutscene of a man covered in bullet wounds and blood, gasping his last words as he died. And my clear response was: Fuck you.
I didn't play for two days.
In the end, the only sensible response is to pretend they're not there. They have so little to do with the game, and their inclusion makes so little sense, that it's oddly easy to pretend they didn't happen. Bizarrely their impact on the plot is minimal, and in they end they're not actually that hard, so really you can switch off, angrily get past, and then carry on playing the splendid Deus Ex game you were enjoying.
Much more interesting is the augmentation system. As I mentioned, I'm not going to go far into this here. But with hard-earned Praxis Points you can unlock new abilities that define how you'll approach situations depending upon the order in which you unlock them. Focus on hacking skills and you're obviously going to do better by breaking into terminals and cracking your way past electronic door locks. But if you've been beefing up your arms, such that you can punch through fractured walls, you'll be more likely to create your own pathway. Again, it's more choice.
And there was mentioned hacking. Oh, poor hacking. Every game that does it thinks the only method is a puzzle minigame, and DXHR is no exception. Although I'd say it's the best one so far. It's not interesting enough to explain in words, but it serves its purpose of forcing you to be in a panic to get into a computer before alarms are set off or patrols wander by. It certainly could have been more interesting, but it never offends.
There's an accusation that can be thrown at some projects that they're not nearly as clever as they think they are. But DXHR feels like a game that's not nearly as clever as the people making it obviously are. And again, it's not a case of unrealised ambition, or reaching too far. It's a genuine shame that your companions' feedback based on your playing style all but dries up after the very first mission, and I think that certainly was a needlessly missed opportunity to capture something that made the original DX special. Perhaps there they simply bit off too much. But beyond that, I felt like it was holding back.
I've not mentioned the original DX until this point because I find comparisons pretty unhelpful. But it's hard not to recall a few of the game's more esoteric highlights. The books in the game, a combination of technical and fiction literature, were compelling and mostly went over my head as I reached to understand. In DXHR they're almost entirely technical documents on various aspects of augmentations, whether how they actually work, or discussion over the debates related to them. None made me think.
The conversations in DXHR are wonderfully voiced and impressively acted, and generally very well written. But none made me realise how little I knew about a subject, nor challenged my philosophy on a matter. And yet it felt like, from the atmosphere and attitude of so much of the game, that those creating it certainly could have achieved this. Wonderful stories are told just by hacking into people's emails and following the threads of conversations from multiple angles. This is a smartly made game. But I fear it's not actually a smart game. And as much as I may be otherwise determined to not let my memories of an eleven year old game determine my experience and opinion of this one, I wasn't able to shake that desire to be playing a game that was demonstrably far brainier than me.
It looks good enough, but it's hard not to constantly feel the struggle for polygons as they fought against the archaic tech of the Xbox 360. The PC version is certainly prettier, and the port is sublime - everything is optimised and works exquisitely with mouse and keyboard. But it's undeniable that the engine looks dated. (Which is perhaps only appropriately in keeping with the series.) While Jenson's face looks decent, many NPCs look almost unfinished in the fight to save polys. The cities are big and dirty and interesting, but don't look too closely or you'll see the 2D cheats, missing textures, and weirdly blocky backgrounds. This is definitely not a case of crying "consolitus!", because this is one of the most PC games in years. But at the same time it's a shame that it has been so obviously visually restricted.
Come close to real greatness and your defects are illuminated by the heavenly glow.
What you have here is a compellingly entertaining game, with some of the most rewarding stealth I've encountered. And most of all, you have choice. Choice about whether you mow down enemies with a machine gun, or tap them on the shoulders and punch them in the face. Choice about whether you sneak in via the roof, through the sewers, or march boldly in through the front door. Choice about whether you hack, smash or learn passwords through information retrieval. Choice about whether people live or die. So in those tiny moments when the game robs you of choice, it rather offends. But mostly it does not, and it's a fantastic, elaborate, and so rarely today, long game.
The most interesting parts can't be discussed here, because they're yours to discover. And really, discover them you should. Despite its obvious visual console shackles, this is a game that remembers what PC games were once all about, and honours them. It's a refreshing reminder of what games can be in the current swamp of six-hour follow-em-up shooters, and stands shoulders, chest and waist above. When games get close to the glory of Looking Glass, our expectations can rise extremely high. That Deus Ex: Human Revolution meets so many of them is a remarkable feat.
Deus Ex is released at midnight tonight in the US, and then for reasons beyond explanation, midnight first thing Friday in the UK.


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Every week on Monday morning, the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum with short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture or daily living. This week's question: What Are Your Thoughts On President Obama's Normalizing Relations With Cuba?
The Razor: I support it. The Castros have been using the embargo to justify the failures of their rule and normalization would strip that away. You have the same Cuban families on both sides of the Florida straits and the prosperity on one side is hard to hide. My only issue with it is that it's happening under the Obama administration, so I'm sure it will be a disaster just as everything else has been in the foreign policy realm.
Simply Jews: This question is probably a subject for a longer and better augmented post, but to be brief, I shall try to digest my roaming thoughts all the same:
Since the demise of the Soviet Union and cessation of Soviet support so vital for Cuban economy, the US policy on Cuba remained unrevised and caused unnecessary 20+ years of hostility. And, of course, unnecessary suffering to Cubans.
The end to embargo (not there yet) and opening the borders to economic and cultural ties would have effectively finished off the oppressive dictatorial regime many years ago without any need to resort to exploding cigars and other outlandish and stupid ideas.
The Cubans today are kept as serfs to a rotting and crumbling regime that relies on the relatively privileged army and secret police as the last bastions that keep it intact and will crumble in the same way the Soviet regime crumbled all these years ago, if only the economic, cultural and, especially, information gateways were opened for all – to see how the life could be.
The right wing political camp in US was (still is) in thrall of the influential Cuban immigrants' lobby that ties its hands in all matters concerning Cuba. And let's not forget that at least some of the more influential and rich Cuban emigres are still pining for the corrupt and dictatorial Batista's regime… 'nuff said.
Of course, what Obama so far achieved is too little, but I hope it's not too late and the continuation will come. The more tourists from the US, the more goods and information from the free world come to Cuba, the quicker the demise of the regime there will be.
The sooner the better.
JoshuaPundit: What do I think about President Obama Normalizing Relations With Cuba? I think it means he's quit cigarettes and is now smoking cigars.
About all I can do is joke about this, because it's a disaster in the making.
The regime itself was on the verge of collapse, because the Maduro regime in Venezuela could no longer afford to give the Castros subsidized oil. So instead of allowing it to fall or even encouraging its demise, this president has now thrown this brutal regime a lifeline that will keep it in power.
Cuba is only ninety miles from the U.S. Think about that for a moment. It is a regime aligned with our enemies and as Raúl Castro informed President Obama in a 30 minute lecture, nothing's changing.
The embargoes kept a lot of bad actors away from Cuba. Not only are they now free to come in, by the entire use of embargoes as a means to counteract bad behavior short of war has been undermined.
But wait, there's more. Let's revisit history.
Once President Kennedy allowed the Monroe Doctrine to be breached by backing out of the Bay of Pigs invasion after it had already started, the Soviets realized that Castro could be their entry into the western hemisphere and just a year later they had their missile bases installed on the island. The confrontation that followed once our intelligence found out about it almost started a nuclear war.
Imagine what would happen if history repeated itself? The Russians are already sniffing around. What if Iran makes a clandestine deal with Castro and we wake up one day with Iranian ballistic missiles aimed at our shores? What if China decides that Havana would be a superb spot for a naval base to extend their reach into American territorial waters? What if the Cuban regime itself receives nuclear weapons from, say, North Korea? Especially at a time when America's missile defense and nuclear weapons, just like our conventional military are already at historic lows?
And remember, the Cubans are going to get an embassy on our shores out of the deal which will be nothing but a den of spies and a security risk.
I'm afraid I have little patience with people that argue that after 50 years, we need to change policy, that trade and tourism will benefit the Cuban people and eventually lead to more freedom. These are the same arguments a number of people made when talking about the Soviet Union between WWII and the 1970′s and they helped it keep going for years.
Profits from trade and tourism aren't going to trickle down to ordinary Cubans.They will go to the regime's elites, with a select few being allowed access to the goodies as the carrot for loyalty and good behavior, with the stick very much in evidence for anyone who displeases the regime in any fashion. And rest assured, the Cubans not are going to be allowed free access to the internet, to publications, to radio, to films or to anything that displeases the regime, contradicts its propaganda or undermines its iron grip on their throats.
As sickening as it is that we would betray the many Cubans whom seek freedom, it's even worse that would would betray our own interests and our national security. That's exactly what this amounts to… a major foreign policy debacle.
The Independent Sentinel: All I have to do is repost the first paragraph from the NY Times article December 20th: "President Raúl Castro declared victory for the Cuban Revolution on Saturday in a wide-ranging speech, thanking President Obama for "a new chapter" while also reaffirming that restored relations with the United States did not mean the end of Communist rule in Cuba."
Obama just propped up another Communist dictatorship.
Laura Rambeau Lee, Right Reason: President Obama makes another sweeping statement, this time decreeing he intends to normalize relations with Cuba. We have not seen any announcement or agreement on the part of the Castro regime to bring freedom and democracy to the people of Cuba in return for re-establishing diplomatic and trade ties with America. Several members of Congress have said they had no idea these negotiations were even occurring although apparently they have been going on for over a year. This appears to be another ill-conceived unilateral executive action. So why is President Obama doing this?
Whether you believe we should lift the decades old embargo or not, we do need to consider the parties who will benefit the most from this action. Very likely billions of our tax dollars will be given in aid to the Cuban government in an ongoing effort of the president to redistribute our wealth, most of which will end up in the pockets of those in positions of power in the Castro regime.
Of course, American corporations will benefit by opening factories in Cuba and hiring cheap labor. The lives of Cubans might improve a little, but they will remain isolated from the rest of the world as they have been since Castro came to power. Cuba has had diplomatic and trade relations with many countries around the world, and the Cuban people continue to live in poverty and fear. Why would anyone believe if America opens diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba the lives of the people of Cuba will improve?
This is all about wealth re-distribution and cheap labor for American corporations.
The Right Planet: I shouldn't say I was shocked by Obama's unilateral action to normalize relations with Cuba. But it is shocking to watch a U.S. president simply ignore the past and make nice with a despotic regime. My South American friends see this as throwing a lifeline to the Castro regime, since Cuba's close ally, Venezuela, is quickly going belly up, due to plummeting oil prices. But along comes Obama to pluck them from disaster.
What did the U.S. get in return? The release of a USAID worker and an intel agent, Rolando Sarraff Trujillo, held in Cuba for the past two decades. But Cuba got everything they wanted. I suspect, too, that this unilateral decision by Obama has something to do with closing Guantanamo Bay. And why didn't the U.S. demand the return of cop killer Joanne Chesimard, who was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1973 during a gunbattle after being stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike?
Obama stated in his address to the nation that his decision to normalize relations with Cuba "will end an outdated approach that has failed to advance America's interests." What does that mean? Obama never explained what he meant by "America's interests." I suspect it's code for "failed to advance Obama's interests." It just looks to me like Obama is propping up a failed socialist regime, since Obama has never met a communist despot he didn't like, to my knowledge.
The Glittering Eye: The embargo on Cuba was imposed specifically for the purpose of producing regime change. A half century later it still hasn't done that and at this point I think it's reasonable to think it never will. Both sides in the argument about the president's recent announcement have good points. Those who oppose them object to subsidizing the Castro regime and think that we haven't struck much of a deal in the negotiations. Those who support the president's move point out that we haven't gotten anywhere with the embargo, abandoning it would be of economic benefit to the U. S., and it's time for a change. I think the economic argument is much exaggerated. LIberalization will be much better for Cuba than it will for us.
IMO liberalization of travel will be a stronger weapon against the Castro regime than the embargo. It will be interesting to see how Cubans react to visits from their relatives in the States and to the consumer goods and information they bring with them.
The whole matter strikes me as another example of something that has become a very bad habit for the president, not enlisting the support of Congress, even Democrats in Congress, before announcing a change in policy. There isn't a lot the president can do in the absence of cooperation from the Congress and an announcement out of the blue does little to foster that cooperation.
In the final analysis whether the policy change is just a photo op or whether there is actually material change will depend on what the president and Congress agree on. We'll just need to wait and see.
Well, there you have it!
Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher's Forum and every Tuesday morning, when we reveal the week's nominees for Weasel of the Week!
And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council and the results are posted on Friday morning.
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subset: commoncrawl


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HONOLULU (AP) — Rounding out a tough and frustrating year, President Barack Obama signed a bipartisan budget deal Thursday easing spending cuts and a defense bill cracking down on sexual assault in the military, as the president and Congress began pivoting to the midterm election year ahead.
Obama put his signature on both hard-fought bills while vacationing in Hawaii, where he has been regrouping with his family since Saturday. The bill signing marks one of Obama's last official acts in a year beset by a partial government shutdown, a near-default by the Treasury, a calamitous health-care rollout and near-perpetual congressional gridlock.
Although the budget deal falls short of the grand bargain that Obama and congressional Republicans once aspired to, it ends the cycle of fiscal brinkmanship — for now — by preventing another shutdown for nearly two more years.
But the rare moment of comity may be short-lived. Hanging over the start of the year is a renewed fight over raising the nation's borrowing limit, which the Treasury says must be resolved by late February or early March to avert an unprecedented U.S. default. Both sides are positioning behind customary hard-line positions, with Republicans insisting they want concessions before raising the debt limit and Obama insisting he won't negotiate.
The last vestiges of 2013's legislative wrangling behind him, Obama's attention turns now to major challenges and potential bright spots in the year ahead. In late January, Obama will give his fifth State of the Union address, setting his agenda for the final stretch before the 2014 midterm elections, in which all of the House and one-third of the Senate are on the ballot.
The elections could drown out much of Obama's effort to focus attention on his own, key agenda items.
Those include his signature health-care law. The critical enrollment period for new insurance exchanges closes on March 31. Also at mid-year, Obama will be seeking to secure a comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran before a six-month deal struck in November runs out.
"Hopefully the president has finally learned that if he wants a productive second term we need to focus on finding areas of common ground," said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Wary of letting expectations get too high, Obama's advisers have been careful not to read too much into Congress' success in trumping pessimistic expectations and pulling off a modest, end-of-year budget deal.
In an email on Thursday, senior Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer called for a renewed focus in the new year on job creation, an unemployment insurance extension and raising the minimum wage.
"While it's too early to declare a new era of bipartisanship, what we've seen recently is that Washington is capable of getting things done when it wants to," Pfeiffer said. "There's an opportunity next year for this town to do its job and make real progress."
The product of intensive talks before lawmakers left Washington for Christmas, the budget deal alleviates the harshest effects of automatic budget cuts on the Pentagon and domestic agencies. It reduces those cuts, known as the sequester, by about one-third, restoring approximately $63 billion over two years.


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The mashed potato snowmen were quite simple. What is it about mashed potato that makes creative Christmas food – stars and Christmas trees and snowmen! I was so excited by the idea I ran out to buy an ice cream scoop. River had used different sized scoops for the head and body but I could only find one. To make the snowmen I boiled some red capsicum till it was soft and wrapped around the neck easily. I cut a strip lengthwise and it wasn't quite long enough – maybe I should have cut it around the body like peeling an apple. I used olives for the hat, eyes and mouth, red capsicum for the nose and peas for the button.
River made Christmas parcels from sausage crumbles. This is not something that we have in our shops – and even if we did I suspect I would still prefer a nut roast recipe. So you will not be surprised to hear that I created my own nut roast recipe, making it quite stiff so I could shape it into parcels. I used River's idea of the glaze and capsicum "ribbons". Mine wasn't quite so pretty but they still looked cute and they tasted wonderful.
Fortunately I am quite partial to nut roast because I also had one on Christmas day with mum's roast dinner. Dessert is becoming a lavish affair at Christmas with pudding, pavlova, rolled pavlova and chocolate mousse. I am an old fashioned girl who just loves a piece of pudding with custard.
It was a good Christmas with lots of good food and good cheer. Sylvia got a new pram from Santa. It is actually for her dolly but she loves to sit in it. She also got lots of noisy toys – a talking doll, a train, books with musical buttons and even a jigsaw that makes animal noises. I guess the batteries will wear out eventually!
E and I managed to give each other the same DVD (30 Rock Series 2 because we enjoyed watching series 1). E also gave me an external hard drive and was grinning to himself on Christmas Eve when I found that my computer memory is full and needs some rigorous housekeeping.
Below is my nut roast parcels recipe. I had more photos of them but I think my computer deleted a few just to warn me that I must delete more photos. But in my spirit of never deleting a thing, here are my notes that I made when I was thinking about making this nut roast. (But I ended up using what I had on hand):
Rice, pumpkin, cranberries, almond butter and ground almonds nooch mustard powder, sage, corn crumbs, carrot, celery, onion – do them as parcels a la bookmarked one
Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
This time last year: Christmas Day panforte and more
This time two years ago: Christmas, Leftovers and Vegan Mayonnaise
This time three years ago: My Christmas Nutloaf
Festive Nut Roast Parcels
inspired by Wing-it Vegan
serves 3-4
- 1-2 tsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 1 small carrot, diced
- 1 large red pepper, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 95g ground almonds
- 70g walnut crumbles (or finely chopped walnuts)
- 1 cup dried breadcrumbs
- 2 tsp promite
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
- 1 egg
- 100g roasted pumpkin, mashed
- ½ cup passata (pureed tomatoes)
- 1 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- ⅛ tsp cinnamon
- shake of allspice and ginger
To serve: green capsicum cut into thin strips
Heat oil in a large frypan on medium high. Cook onion, carrot, red pepper and garlic until soft and starting to brown. I think this took me about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile place remaining ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add cooked onion mixture and mix till combined. Take handfuls and shape into 6-8 cubes. Place on a greased or lined tray.
Mix glaze and brush onto nut roast cubes. Bake at 210 C for 15 minutes. Flip cubes over and brush with glaze again. Bake another 15 minutes.
While nut roast parcels are baking, steam, boil or microwave capsicum until quite soft. I boiled mine for about 5 minutes and they weren't done enough. So I placed them in a plastic bag and microwaved them until very soft.
When nut roast parcels come out of the oven, arrange strips of capsicum over the parcels like ribbon. Serve hot with snowmen and salad
On the Stereo:
Ultra Lounge Christmas Cocktails: Various Artists


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I am just succesfully customized Seam 2 JPA example to deploy and run on JBoss AS 7 server, so I will share steps which are required to do for that.
First JBoss AS 7 is great in start up time, deployment time, classloading isolation and much more. See JBoss AS7 page for more and detailed description!
Just quick info - Seam 2 JPA example is demonstrating JPA 1 usage, it uses JSF 1.2 and Richfaces 3.3.3.Final. Thanks to great classloading isolation Seam 2 can live and works just fine in JBoss AS7 although it is primarily targeted for Java EE 6, where are JSF2, JPA 2.
First step in customizing the example is set up of datasource. JBoss AS 7 release is changing the name of default datasource, which is for demos/examples. Now the default datasource is called java:jboss/datasources/ExampleDS, you have to just change the referenced datasource JNDI in the example or create new datasource with old name java:/DefaultDS.
I created new datasource with old name, because I am using many old examples and I don't want to change them all. New datasource is basically a clone of existing ExampleDS.
Start Jboss AS7 standalone instance by writing in terminal:
<installed_path_to_jbossas7>/bin/standalone.sh(on linux) <installed_path_to_jbossas7>/bin/standalone.bat(on windows)
In another terminal window start CLI admin interface by:
<installed_path_to_jbossas7>/bin/jboss-admin.sh --connect(on linux) <installed_path_to_jbossas7>/bin/jboss-admin.bat --connect(on windows)
Then write the command for creating actual datasource:
add-data-source --jndi-name=java:/DefaultDS --connection-url=jdbc:h2:mem:test;DB_CLOSE_DELAY=-1 --username=sa --password=sa --pool-name=DefaultDS_pool --driver-name=h2
The above command is self describing ;-).
Now a few customizations which are done in jboss-seam-jpa.war:
Remove jboss-web.xml from jboss-seam-jpa.war/WEB-INF/ - defined class loading in jboss-web.xml is now default behaviour.
Comment or remove hibernate property
<property name="hibernate.cache.provider_class" value="org.hibernate.cache.HashtableCacheProvider"/>
in jboss-seam-jpa.war/WEB-INF/classes/META-INF/persistence.xml- Add the following dependencies from seam distribution (seam/lib directory) into jboss-seam-jpa.war/WEB-INF/lib directory, which are in JBoss AS 5/6 in different versions:
hibernate-commons-annotations.jar - Create new file jboss-deployment-structure.xml and add it to jboss-seam-jpa.war/WEB-INF/ with the following content:
<jboss-deployment-structure> <deployment> <exclusions> <module name="javax.faces.api" slot="main"/> <module name="com.sun.jsf-impl" slot="main"/> </exclusions> <dependencies> <module name="org.apache.commons.logging" /> <module name="org.apache.commons.collections" /> <module name="org.apache.log4j" /> <module name="org.dom4j" /> <module name="javax.faces.api" slot="1.2"/> <module name="com.sun.jsf-impl" slot="1.2"/> </dependencies> </deployment> </jboss-deployment-structure>
I will shortly describe why I did step 3 and 4. By default Jboss AS 7 is configured for JSF2, but Seam 2 is integrated with JSF 1.2, so thanks to class loading isolation we can have in Jboss AS 7 set up more than one version of the same library in our case JSF 1.2 and JSF 2. Both JSF's implementations are preconfigured in AS7 release, we just have to include 1.2 slot and default JSF 2 to exclude from web application deployment. The remaining two dependencies – dom4j and commons logging is provided by container and Seam 2 expects them as provided.
Last step 4 is replacement of provided hibernate dependencies and their dependencies, which are bundled directly in web application WEB-INF/lib subdirectory. This is because Seam 2 is integrated with older hibernate versions which is not backward compatible with hibernate what is in AS7.
Enjoy new JBoss AS 7 with "old" Seam2!


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What is Cellular Toxicity?
Cellular toxicity is a reference to any cell state that is not conducive to healthy cell function typically caused by toxicity or substances toxic to cells and resulting in cell damage.
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Here is an interesting piece on cell damage and tissue repair from the National Library of Medicine.
Source National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine
Cell Damage from Toxicity & Tissue Repair
Table of Contents
Content Source: National Library of Medicine
Toxic damage to cells can cause individual cell death and if sufficient numbers of cells are lost, the result can be tissue or organ failure, ultimately leading to death of the organism. It is virtually impossible to separate a discussion of cellular toxicity and biochemical toxicity. Most observable cellular changes and cell death are due to specific biochemical changes within the cell or in the surrounding tissue. However, there are a few situations where a toxic chemical or physical agent can cause cell damage without actually affecting a specific chemical in the cell or its membrane. Physical agents such as heat and radiation may damage a cell by coagulating their contents (similar to cooking). In this case, there are no specific chemical interactions. Impaired nutrient supply (such as glucose and oxygen) may deprive the cell of essential materials needed for survival.
The majority of toxic effects, especially due to xenobiotics, are due to specific biochemical interactions without causing recognizable or obvious damage to a cell or its organelles.
Examples of this are:
- Interference with a chemical that transmits a message across a neural synapse (for example, the inhibition of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase by organophosphate pesticides).
- When one toxic chemical inhibits or replaces another essential chemical (for example, the replacement of oxygen on the hemoglobin molecule with carbon monoxide).
The human body is extremely complex. In addition to over 200 different cell types and about as many types of tissues, there are literally thousands of different biochemicals, which may act alone or in concert to keep the body functions operating correctly. To illustrate the cell and chemical toxicity of all tissues and organs would be impossible in this brief tutorial. Therefore, only a general overview of toxic effects will be presented along with some specific types of toxicity, for example, cancer and neurotoxicity. We have provided a few key references that can be studied for information on other organ toxic effects.
Figure 1
Some tissues have a great capacity for repair, such as most epithelial tissues. Others have limited or no capacity to regenerate and repair, such as nervous tissue. Most organs have a functional reserve capacity so that they can continue to perform their body function although perhaps in somewhat diminished ability. An example is that half of a persons liver can be damaged, and the body can regenerate sufficient new liver (or repair the damaged section by fibrous replacement) to maintain most of the capacity of the original liver. Another example is the hypertrophy, or increased growth of one organ to assume the capacity lost when the other kidney has been lost or surgically removed.
Toxic damage to cells and tissues can be transient and non-lethal or in severe situations, the damage may cause death of the cells or tissues. The diagram in Figure 1 illustrates the various effects that can occur with damage to cells. As can be seen, there are four main final endpoints to the cellular or biochemical toxicity:
- The tissue may be completely repaired and return to normal
- The tissue may be incompletely repaired but is capable of sustaining its function with reduced capacity
- Death of the organism or the complete loss of a tissue or organ. In some instances, the organism can continue to live with the aid of medical treatment, e.g., replacement of insulin or by organ transplantations.
- Neoplasm or cancers may result, many which will result in death of the organism and some, which may be cured by medical treatment.
Reversible Cell Damage
The response of cells to toxic injury may be transient and reversible once the stress has been removed or the compensatory cellular changes made. In some cases the full capability of the damaged cells returns. In other cases, a degree of permanent injury remains with a diminished cellular or tissue capacity. In addition to the adaptive cell changes discussed previously, two commonly encountered specific cell changes are associated with toxic exposures, cellular swelling and fatty change.
Cellular swelling (which is associated with hypertrophy) is due to cellular hypoxia, which damages the sodium-potassium membrane pump. This in turn changes the intracellular electrolyte balance with an influx of fluids into the cell, causing it to swell. Cell swelling is reversible when the cause has been eliminated.
Fatty change is more serious and occurs with severe cellular injury. In this situation, the cell has become damaged and is unable to adequately metabolize fat. The result is that small vacuoles of fat accumulate and become dispersed within the cytoplasm. While fatty change can occur in several organs, it is usually observed in the liver. This is because most fat is synthesized and metabolized in liver cells. Fatty change can be reversed but it is a much slower process than the reversal of cellular swelling.
Lethal Injury (Cell Death)
In many situations, the damage to a cell may be so severe that the cell can not survive. Cell death occurs by two methods, necrosis and apoptosis.
Necrosis is a progressive failure of essential metabolic and structural cell components usually in the cytoplasm. Necrosis generally involves a group of contiguous cells or occurs at the tissue level. Such progressive deterioration in structure and function rapidly leads to cell death or "necrotic cells". Necrosis begins as a reduced production of cellular proteins, changes in electrolyte gradient, or loss of membrane integrity (especially increased membrane permeability). Cytoplasmic organelles (such as mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum) swell while others (especially ribosomes) disappear. This early phase progresses to fluid accumulation in the cells making them pale-staining or showing vacuoles, which is known to the pathologist as "cloudy swelling" or "hydropic degeneration". In some cells, they no longer can metabolize fatty acids so that lipids accumulate in the cytoplasmic vacuoles, referred to as "fatty accumulation" or "fatty degeneration". In the final stages of "cell dying", the nucleus becomes shrunken (pyknosis) or fragmented (karyorrhexis).
Apoptosis (referred to as "programmed cell death") is a process of self-destruction of the cell nucleus. Apoptosis is an individual or single cell death in that dying cells are not contiguous but are scattered throughout a tissue. Apoptosis is a normal process in cell turnover in that cells have a finite lifespan and spontaneously die. During embryonic development, certain cells are programmed to die and are not replaced, such as the cells between each developing finger. In this case, the programmed cells do not die; the fetus ends up with incomplete or fingers jointed together in a web fashion.
In apoptosis, the cells shrink from decrease of cytosol in the nucleus. The organelles (other than nucleus) appear normal in apoptosis. The cell disintegrates into fragments referred to as "apoptotic bodies". These apoptotic bodies and the organelles are phagocytized by adjacent cells and local macrophages without initiation of an inflammatory response as is seen in necrosis. The cells undergo apoptosis and just appear to "fade away." Some toxicants induce apoptosis or in other cases they inhibit normal physiological apoptosis.
Figure 2: The gross appearance of a cirrhotic liver. The normal dark-red, glistening smooth appearance of the liver has been replaced with light, irregular fibrous scar tissue that permeates the entire liver.
Following necrosis, the tissue attempts to regenerate with the same type of cells that have died. When the injury is minimal, the tissue may effectively replace the damaged or lost cells. In severely damaged tissues or long-term chronic situations, the ability of the tissue to regenerate the same cell types and tissue structure may be exceeded, so that a different and imperfect repair occurs. An example of this is with chronic alcoholic damage to liver tissue in which the body can no longer replace hepatocytes with hepatocytes but rather connective tissue replacement occurs. Fibrocytes with collagen replace the hepatocytes and normal liver structure with scar tissue. The fibrotic scar tissue shores up the damage but it can not replace the function of the lost hepatic tissue. With constant fibrotic change, the liver function is continually diminished so that eventually the liver can no longer maintain homeostasis. This fibrotic replacement of the liver is known as "cirrhosis".
We have so far discussed primarily changes that individual cells. However, a tissue and an organ consists of different types of cells that work together to achieve a particular function. As with a football team, when one member falters, the others rally to compensate; so it is with a tissue. Damage to one cell type prompts reactions within the tissue to compensate for the injury. Within organs, there are two basic types of tissues, the parenchymal and stromal tissues. The parenchymal tissues contain the functional cells (e.g., squamous dermal cells, liver hepatocytes and pulmonary alveolar cells). The stromal cells are the supporting connective tissues (e.g., blood vessels and elastic fibers).
Repair of injured cells can be accomplished by: (1) regeneration of the parenchymal cells; or (2) repair and replacement by the stromal connective tissue. The goal of the repair process is to fill the gap that results from the tissue damage and restore the structural continuity of the injured tissue. Normally a tissue attempts to regenerate the same cells that are damaged; however, in many cases, this can not be achieved so that replacement with a stromal connective tissue is the best means for achieving the structural continuity.
The ability to regenerate varies greatly with the type of parenchymal cell. The regenerating cells come from the proliferation of nearby parenchymal cells, which serve to replace the lost cells. Based on regenerating ability, there are three types of cells. With one type, it is a normal process for some cells to routinely divide and replace cells that have a limited lifespan (e.g., skin epithelial cells and hematopoietic stem cells). These are referred to as labile cells. Some other cells usually have a long lifespan with normally a low rate of division (stable cells). Stable cells can rapidly divide upon demand. The third category of cells is the permanent cells. They never divide and do not have the ability for replication even when stressed or some cells die.
Examples of these type cells are listed below:
The labile cells have a great potential for regeneration by replication and repopulation with the same cell type so long as the supporting structure remains intact. Stabile cells can also respond and regenerate but to a lesser degree and are quite dependent on the supporting stromal framework. When the stromal framework is damaged, the regenerated parenchymal cells may be irregularly dispersed in the organ resulting in diminished organ function. The tissue response for the labile and stabile cells is initially hyperplasia until the organ function becomes normal again. When permanent cells die they are not replaced in kind but instead connective tissue (usually fibrous tissue) moves in to occupy the damaged area. This is a form of metaplasia.
Examples of replacement by metaplasia are:
- Cirrhosis of the liver. Liver cells (hepatocytes) are replaced by bands of fibrous tissue, which can not carry out the metabolic functions of the liver.
- Cardiac infarcts. Cardiac muscle cells do not regenerate and thus are replaced by fibrous connective tissue (scar). The scar can not transmit electrical impulses or participate in contraction of the heart.
- Pulmonary fibrosis. Damaged or dead epithelial cells lining the pulmonary alveoli are replaced by fibrous tissue. Gases can not diffuse across the fibrous cells and thus gas exchange is drastically reduced in the lungs.
Disclaimer: This article is taken wholly from, or contains information that was originally published by, the National Library of Medicine. Topic editors and authors for the Encyclopedia of Earth may have edited its content or added new information. The use of information from the National Library of Medicine should not be construed as support for or endorsement by that organization for any new information added by EoE personnel, or for any editing of the original content.
CitationNational Library of Medicine (Content source); Emily Monosson (Topic Editor). 2007. "Cell damage from toxicity and tissue repair." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [Published in the Encyclopedia of Earth November 20, 2007; Retrieved August 24, 2009].
Natural Health Support Approach to Healthy Cardiovascular Function *
Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners believe that Chinese herbs can support normal and healthy cellular function. Naturally Supporting Cellular Function is a desirable health goal. *
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Home » Taplay Limited
Donut Ninja - Tappi Bear Review
Donut Ninja is the third in a current series of four available games by Taplay in the 'Tappi Bear' series of mini-games and I thought I'd give you the low-down on at least one of these titles as they're an interesting experience to say the least. All of the games in this series keep things extremely simple, requiring only one to two taps to play and in Donut Ninja it's your job to feed the incoming waves of attacking ninja bears with donuts before they attack. The game essentially fee…
Watch The Video Review


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Pyeongchang, South Korea (CNN) -- The cheers were deafening in Pyeongchang, South Korea, early Thursday when the city was named to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Thousands of South Koreans gathered at the foot of a ski jump well past midnight in a passionate display of excitement that included fireworks, singing, dancing, picnicking and kimchi -- the traditional Korean side dish.
"This is the victory of the South Korean people," said President Lee Myung Bak in Durban, South Africa,Wednesday, where the decision was announced.
"I thank you all," he added.
Pyeongchang beat out two other bid cities: Munich, Germany, and Annecy, France.
Their slogan for the Winter Olympics is "New Horizons."
Pyeongchang narrowly failed in its bids for the 2010 and 2014 Winter Games, losing by three votes to Vancouver, Canada, for last year's event and by four votes to Sochi, Russia, for the 2014 games. The sheer number of locals who came to watch the pre-announcement show at the ski jump showed their confidence in this year's decision.
"I cannot even tell you how happy I am," said one resident. "Everyone came together and prayed that we would win." South Korea has never hosted the Winter Games, though the capital city of Seoul hosted the 1988 Summer Games.
Winter games gold for Korean economy
France has hosted three editions of the Winter Olympics, most recently in 1992 in Albertville. Annecy met with many difficulties in its bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, including a small budget and change in leadership on the bid committee.
Had it won, Munich would have been the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics. The city attracted the Summer Games in 1972.
Representatives from the three cities made their cases to committee members in Durban, South Africa Wednesday.


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It's not easy to survive under the alien sky when there's always someone to burst you with his weaponry or overcome with his tactics. However you have to. Cause you and your ultramodern space-fighter are the only chance to prevent alien invasion which is almost ready to start, turning your homeworld into ruins.
Look who's best in Alien Sky Worldwide Hall of Fame.
Game Requires: 400 Mhz Processor, 64 Mb RAM, Video Card 8 Mb, DirectX 8.1 or higher
© 1998-2023 KRAISOFT COM CO., LTD. — your place for free game downloads & online games | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Feedback


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BAE Systems has launched the Phoenix family of networking radios to meet the 21st century communications needs of the U.S. military. Filling the gap between higher headquarters and the warfighter, Phoenix radios deliver secure, jam-resistant communications on the battlefield via modern networking waveforms. BAE Systems has responded to the U.S. Army's request for a non-developmental mid-tier networking vehicular radio (MNVR) solution with its two-channel Phoenix-SC radio, which meets or exceeds all specifications.
"The Phoenix family of radios offers the most complete MNVR solution for battlefield communications," said Joseph Senftle, vice president and general manager of Communications and Control Solutions at BAE Systems. "With decades of experience in software-defined radio technology, BAE Systems developed the Phoenix radios with affordability, reduced size, weight, and power, as well as robust anti-jam capabilities, as top priorities."
The Phoenix family of radios operates the Wideband Networking Waveform (WNW) and the Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW), enabling multiple configurations and providing full anti-jam modes in WNW to protect communications in hostile environments.
BAE Systems has leveraged commercial technology to create a low size, weight, and power design that can integrate easily into the existing radio space on U.S. Army ground combat vehicles. To simplify end-user training and adoption, Phoenix radios are fully interoperable with other joint tactical radio systems currently in use.


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Informed Consent in clinical trials
Find out more about the processes involved in giving Informed Consent when you are considering taking part in a clinical trial.
Informed Consent
Informed Consent is a process to make sure that potential participants in clinical trials:
- can ask questions and get answers before, during and after the trial;
- fully understand the nature and purpose of the trial;
- fully understand what the trial will involve;
- are informed about potential benefits to health, risks and inconveniences;
- only agree to take part willingly; and
- remain informed throughout their period of participation.
This process starts when your CF doctor or researcher introduces details of the clinical trial to you. Following initial discussions, you will be given information to take home to read and consider further with family or friends, who may also attend meetings with you. You should feel confident that you have enough information to help you decide whether you want to take part in the trial, and that you have been given enough time to consider all the information and what the trial will mean to you in practical terms, such as extra appointments and tests.
You can't be entered into a trial without giving your written consent. Where clinical trials involve children the consent process is also different and will be fully explained by the CF doctor or researcher you talk to about the trial, however you can also find out more in the section below, 'Informed Consent in trials involving babies and children'.
If you decide to take part, you will be given a consent form to sign to say that you understand the information and give your consent willingly – you should retain a copy of this form for your own records.
Informed Consent is an ongoing process throughout your period of participation in a trial. Researchers should continue to provide information, answer your questions and advise if any new relevant information comes to light during the trial. You can reconsider your participation at any point, or even withdraw without the need to give a reason. Your decision must be respected and will not affect your ongoing CF treatment plan.
Trials involving babies and children
Clinical trials are not just for adults. Cystic fibrosis, as you know, affects children from birth and treatment is vital to maintain good health and slow the deterioration. Clinical trials therefore often need to include children or even babies. Children are not just small adults and may react differently to the same medication; it's not sufficient or effective to simply adapt the dose. As with clinical trials involving adults, trials involving children are very carefully regulated, and approval to include children will only be given if the potential benefits can be shown to outweigh any possible risks.
Some parents can struggle with the decision of whether to enroll their child in a clinical trial, and it is understandable to have concerns. Talking to your child/children openly about research and trials from an early age can make it easier to reach decisions about taking part in research when opportunities arise.
Informed Consent in trials involving babies and children
Obviously, babies and younger children are not able to give Informed Consent, and special consideration is given to the fact that children are less likely than adults (or completely unable) to be able to communicate their experiences of participating in a trial. Talk to your healthcare professional or CF research team about the consent process for including children and babies in research, or look at the detailed information on consent in children from the NHS Health Research Authority.
Older children and teenagers can be asked to provide their agreement to participate. This is called "assent".
Clinical Trials Digital Hub
We've got everything you might want to know about clinical trials on our Clinical Trials Digital Hub, including resources, information about taking part and more!
Meet the team
There are a number of different professionals involved in making sure clinical trials are as successful as possible.
Trials for young people
Take a look at the resources available for young people involved in clinical trials.


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Spock is really making writing tests fun, instead of a chore.
@Unroll("toClass '#javaName' should be #expectedClass") def "toClass tests"() { expect: PlasticInternalUtils.toClass(getClass().classLoader, javaName) == expectedClass where: javaName | expectedClass "java.lang.String" | String.class "java.lang.Integer[]" | Integer[].class "java.lang.Long[][]" | Long[][].class "void" | void.class "int" | int.class "int[]" | int[].class "float[][]" | float[][].class }
This combines lots of things I've seen before in TestNG, but nicer; just more readable ... and the @Unroll annotation (which guides Spock on how to report the test execution) is really handy, especially when things go wrong. It's just a slick overall package.


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Research Summary
My research interests cover race and American politics, broadly conceived. In particular, I focus on political discourse with a methodological focus on the historical interplay between ideas and institutions.
- Ph.D, Political Science, New School for Social Research
Edmund Fong is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and the Division of Ethnic Studies. His research interests lie in examining the constitutive role of racial politics in the development of American political culture and American political institutions. He has published in journals and anthologies such as Political Research Quarterly, Politics, Groups, and Identities, and the Oxford Handbook of Racial and Ethnic Politics in the U.S.. His book, American Exceptionalism and the Remains of Race: Multicultural Exorcisms was published in July 2014 by Routledge Press through their Routledge Series on Identity Politics. He is currently working on a new book on how we tell time through race in American politics. He teaches broadly in the fields of Political Science and Ethnic Studies, from courses on the American Presidency to Racial/Ethnic Politics to seminars on Politics & Literature.


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La Sagrada Familia Posters
Spain has always had a different take on the way imposing and beautiful churches look like. It has been featured on a multitude of art print products as well as on luscious canvas art and poster products. The La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona lives in a multitude of surfaces and other products. The great thing is that it looks like no other church out there, making it more recognizable and more interesting than many other buildings of its kind.
The art of the La Sagrada Familia
Not many people know that the La Sagrada Familia is still under construction to this day. The construction has been commissioned in the 17th century to be followed by numerous modifications and architectural changes. One of its most recognizable features and certainly something that deserves a good poster is the imposing pillar like frontispiece. Those are mainly its exterior design most noticeable features, and of course, the main reason many want to look upon it in awe, a thing that can be done through a poster just as well.
A work still in progress - La Sagrada Familia
It is not a thing to be taken lightly, the La Sagrada Familia although finished in terms of aspect and the way it's gonna end up, is still under construction and still keeping itself reliable and ready to flourish. It is interesting to different poster entries that picture it at various degrees of completion. If you are a poster fan than you can definitely make a worthwhile experience out of the way those features get modified and changed over time.


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top of page
Welcome to Robotic Industries.
This is my online portfolio containing many of the commercial and personal projects I've worked on over the years. I've spent the last 18 years working professional as a designer and model maker, 10 of those in the toy area. I have also spent the last 10 years creating on my own artwork by customizing existing toys and creating my own short production runs in resin.
Because of the wide variety of projects I've worked on over the years I've split my portfolio into these seven sections, if you have any questions or enquires please don't hesitate to contact me either through the contact form on this site or on firstname.lastname@example.com
All the best, Jim Freckingham.
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- Home
- Government
- Departments
- Public Works
- Stormwater
- Illicit Discharge
- What is an Illicit Discharge?
What is an Illicit Discharge?
An illicit discharge occurs when a pollutant is released into the storm sewer system or surface waters.
Pollutants include:
- Paints, varnishes and solvents
- Soaps and cleaning solutions
- Kerosene, gasoline, oil and other automotive fluids
- Liquid and solid wastes and yard wastes
- Refuse, rubbish, garbage, litter, or other discarded or abandoned objects or accumulations
- Pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers
- Hazardous substances and wastes
- Sewage, sewage sludge, fecal coliform and pathogens
- Dissolved and particulate metals
- Animal wastes
- Dredged spoil
- Filter backwash
- Chemical wastes
- Biological materials
- Toxic or radioactive materials
- Wrecked or discarded equipment
- Sand or dirt
- Ashes and incinerator residue
- Wastes and residues that result from constructing a building or structure
- Noxious or offensive matter of any kind
The storm sewer system includes:
- Streets and their associated curbs, gutters, drainage ditches or swales
- Inlets
- Culverts
- Drainage pipes
- Detention or retention basins
- Other drainage structures and facilities
Surface waters include:
- Streams
- Lakes
- Ponds
- Creeks
- Rivers
What is NOT Considered an Illicit Discharge?
- Water line or hydrant flushing;
- Landscape or garden irrigation or lawn watering;
- Diverted stream flows;
- Rising ground waters;
- Uncontaminated ground water infiltration;
- Uncontaminated pumped ground water;
- Discharges from potable water sources;
- Foundation drains;
- Air conditioning condensation;
- Springs;
- Water from crawl space pumps;
- Footing drains;
- Individual residential car washing or charity car washing;
- Flows from riparian habitats and wetlands;
- Dechlorinated swimming pool discharges;
- Street wash water;
- Flows from fighting fires
- Other non-stormwater discharges for which a valid NPDES discharge permit has been approved and issued by the State of North Carolina.
What is Considered an Illicit Connection?
An illicit connection is when a drain or pipe conveying sewage, process wastewater, wastewater from washing machines, wash water from commercial vehicle washing or steam cleaning, or water from indoor sinks or floor drains, is connected to the storm sewer system.


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New Xilinx Virtex-6 and Spartan-6 FPGA Connectivity Development Kits Include Northwest Logic DMA Engine IP
December 23, 2009
SOFTWARE/HARDWARE: Xilinx Inc. recently announced the availability of the new Xilinx® Virtex®-6 and Spartan®-6 FPGA Connectivity Development Kits that provide a comprehensive, easy-to-use, and hardware validated development environment. A key component of the new kits is the Connectivity Targeted Reference Designs that contain Northwest Logic's high-performance, scatter-gather DMA Engine IP. The Northwest Logic® DMA Engine IP, in combination with the other elements of the kits, provides high-bandwidth operation for a wide variety of PCI Express®-based applications enabling customers to quickly develop and deploy designs for a broad range of high-speed connectivity applications.The Xilinx Connectivity Kits minimize overall development time by providing a fully integrated development environment complete with FPGA boards, cables, documentation, design tools and IP (intellectual property) cores integrated into Targeted Reference Designs. As a key member of the Xilinx Alliance Program, Northwest Logic collaborated with Xilinx from the initial definition through final release of the connectivity Targeted Reference Designs, to ensure they provide high-bandwidth operation under real system conditions. This performance can be validated by customers using the performance monitor interface built into the Targeted Reference Design.
The Northwest Logic DMA Back-End Core provides a complete, high-performance DMA engine optimized to work with Xilinx integrated PCI Express Endpoint Block plus core and external memory interface soft IP in Virtex-6 FPGAs and hard memory interface IP available in Spartan-6 FPGAs. The Northwest Logic DMA engine includes target and register interfaces and can automatically fetch DMA descriptors or use DMA descriptors provided locally.
The collaboration between Xilinx and Northwest Logic is one example of the broad ecosystem Xilinx is building to bring industry-leading IP components to its customers as part of fully integrated and tested Xilinx Targeted Reference Designs.
The Xilinx Connectivity Targeted Design Platforms provide a starting point for a broad variety off SoC (system-on-chip) applications including:
Wired communications routers and switchers
Wireless radio head and Baseband processing
Audio Video Broadcast control switchers and routers
Automotive driver assistance control applications
Automotive infotainment applications
Consumer set top boxes
The Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA Connectivity Kit is complete and easy-to-use, enabling designs with industry-standard high-speed serial protocols including PCI Express (version 1.1), Ethernet (GMII, SFP), and DDR3 SDRAM (using built-in hard memory controller) as well as enabling designs using other serial standards and proprietary implementations up to 3.125Gbps and multiple parallel protocols including 3.3V I/O standards.
Similarly, the Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA Connectivity Development Kit enables advanced connectivity designs with PCI Express 1.1/2.0, Ethernet (GMII, SFP, XAUI), SATA and other proprietary high-speed serial protocols with line rates up to 6.5Gbps, as well as multiple parallel standards running at ~ 1.4Gbps with SelectIOTM technology.
The Spartan-6 FPGA Connectivity kit is available for order today including a full version the Northwest Logic DMA Back-End Core for $2,495. The Virtex-6 FPGA Connectivity kit will be available in January and includes an evaluation version of the Northwest Logic DMA Back-End Core for $2,995.
- Edited by Liz Taurasi
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text: From: Mr.Paul Mabou. (Urgent & Confidential) Good Day, Please Read. My name is Mr.Paul Mabou. I am the Bill and Exchange manager here in Bank of Africa (BOA) Ouagadougou Burkina Faso.West-Africa. I have a business proposal in the tune of $9.7m, (Nine Million Seven Hundred Thousand Dollars Only) after the successful transfer, we shall share in ratio of 40% for you and 60% for me. Should you be interested, please contact me so we can commence all arrangements and i will give you more information on how we would handle this project. I will want you to call me as soon as you can (+226 78 69 24 82) Please treat this business with utmost confidentiality and send me the Following: 1. Your Full Name:............ 2. Your Phone Number:.......... 3. Your Age:.................... 4. Your Sex:................... 5. Your Occupations:............ 6. Your Country and City:.... Kind Regards, Mr Paul Mabou. Bill & Exchange manager (BOA) Bank of Africa. Ouagadougou Burkina Faso. Email: paul400 at voila.fr -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-horde-hackers/attachments/20100307/f0a2bfe3/attachment.htm>


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National manifestation on Wednesday 16 MAY in Brussels
Dear passengers, please note that on Tuesday, the 16 of May, the handlers of the handling company Swissport Belgium plan to strike and protest all over Belgium. This can affect the process of unloading and loading baggage on flights arriving and departing from Brussels Airport this day. Please, if possible, consider the option of flying to / from the Brussels airport with hand luggage only, in order to avoid possible delay of your luggage.
In case your baggage will be delayed, the UIA will do the best to return it to you as soon as possible. To fill in the all-necessary documents, we advise you to contact the Lost & Found offices before leaving the arrival zone.
We regret that this situation will affect your plans and apologize for inconvenience that this may cause you. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
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Microsoft's SkyDrive is an adequate cloud storage service (and one that boasts 17 million customers to boot), but it's not something that the folks at Redmond can afford to leave in its current state. With Apple playing up their iCloud integration in their forthcoming OS X Mountain Lion update, SkyDrive program managers Mike Torres and Omar Shahine took to the Building Windows 8 blog to outline what's next for their own cloud service.
At first glance, the changes seem incremental. SkyDrive will look prettier than it has before thanks to a handsome new Metro-styled app for Windows 8. It's exactly what you would expect — users can swipe through their remotely-stored files, while third-party applications are able to access those SkyDrive files without any extra work needed from their developers. Expect to see this launch right alongside the Windows 8 consumer preview next week.
A new desktop app is also in the works, and will allow users to drag and drop files into their SkyDrive without the need for firing up a browser and navigating to the SkyDrive site. Frankly, it's a feature that's long overdue — the old process could be clumsy and time-consuming, and while it got the job done, nothing about it made it worth writing home about. Files as large as 2GB can be dragged into the SkyDrive, and the effect on overall performance is expected to be minimal.
That's all well and good — Microsoft is taking steps to ease the friction that comes with storing and interacting with files in the cloud. But the last of their new features could put SkyDrive over the top for some users.
As it stands, the SkyDrive site offers very few frills, but users will soon be able to access files stored on their PCs remotely from the SkyDrive site. Internally called the "Forgot something?" feature (a name that I hope makes its way into the consumer release), users can access their devices while on the run so long as they're running the SkyDrive desktop service. Microsoft doesn't mention to what extent users will be able to dig through their own files — whether it's just certain shared folders or the entirety of the filesystem — but it could be a real life-saver if it works as well as it looks in their demo video.
To offset the potential security risk this sort of access poses, Microsoft has set up a two-factor authentication scheme that requires the user to have both their device password, and access to a connected email account or mobile device. Though the authentication proces seems like a (necessary) hassle, the payoff is substantial — in addition to moving files back and forth, users can also stream video and view photo slideshows remotely. Windows Vista and 7 users will be able to join in the fun too, as the necessary SkyDrive desktop app will be made available for them in due course.
With these new tweaks and additions, SkyDrive has the potential to shift from purely serviceable to downright great. It's about time too — from Dropbox to iCloud, there's no shortage of contenders in the cloud storage space and Microsoft could use every advantage they can come up with.